Jack Ross felt Sunderland looked anxious at times as they tried to bounce back from only their third defeat of the season, but by the end of the 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers he was able to give his players’ character another glowing reference.

Centre-back Tom Flanagan missed the game through injury and left-back Reece James pulled out with an ankle injury during the warm-up. Goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin had to be substituted in the second half after back spasms.

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In that context, it was a good victory achieved in awful playing conditions, and one which closed the gap on next week’s hosts, League One leaders Portsmouth, to five points with two games in hand.

“In the first half there was a bit of anxiety in the stadium, which happens,” manager Ross reflected. “As a group and a club we’ve worked really hard to make sure they enjoy playing (at the Stadium of Light) again and I thought they showed that, I can tell them to do it, but they do it out on the park. They had a bit about them that said they wanted to keep going.

“There was a little spell in the first half where it looked as though it got to us a little bit, but you could see we got through it and created three or four good opportunities close together.

Sunderland manager Jack Ross (Image: Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

“It was good for us to get the goal just before half-time because it probably just galvanised that belief for the second half. It wasn’t perfect but they looked fairly strong in terms of their character.”

Sunderland were poor for Alex Rodman’s opening goal, but responded with strikes from Adam Matthews and Josh Maja. The Black Cats hit the woodwork three times – through Lee Cattermole, Max Power and substitute Chris Maguire – but the chance Stefan Payne smashed against the crossbar in stoppage time ought to have brought an equaliser.

Ross admitted the defensive changes made it more difficult for his side.

“It was a strange day in that respect because we knew we’d have to make the change with Tom and I thought Glenn (Loovens) did well,” he commented. “I trust him in that regard.

“And Bryan (Oviedo), it’s not like he’s not a good player coming in but he probably gives us a difficult dimension in that regard and even the relationships between people and distances, etc. It was to the players’ credit that they did manage to produce a half-decent performance given those challenges pre-match and during the game.”

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Experienced central defender Loovens was making his first league start since September.

From their first competitive game under Ross, where they also overturned a one-goal deficit to win 2-1 at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland’s character has been one of their greatest strengths this season.

“It’s not an easy thing to create at a club,” Ross acknowledged. “Every manager and coach will talk about creating that mentality and results naturally help it. It probably helps that me and my staff are more glass half-full than half-empty people but it has to be tinged with realism. You can’t give the players any bull in that respect.

“They’ve come through enough challenges this season to know they have that character and Saturday was another example. Coming from behind in any game is always difficult because you know you have to score two to win it. That, thankfully, was the case.”